The First Dynasty: Mundane Reality

Written by Paimon

Now that you see how everything is a part of the whole, you'll understand why I begin your journey by showing you he world you think you already know. Look around you at the city; the streets stretch away in fractured spiderweb patterns, choked with refuse and twisting around impossibly tall buildings bedecked with gargoyles and glittering with thousands of lights. The city's glow blots out the sky's candles, almost as if they were veiled by a cloud of darkness. Even were we to turn off all the lights, the choking gasses from our cars and factories would serve to do the same.Look at the woman scurrying down the street. She clutches her purse and holds her coat together as though they were protective talismans. She’s right to be fearful; there are many evil things abroad in the city at night. Most of them exist in the day as well, but they an pretend that they are stronger and less afraid; its easier to see something threatening at distance and turn aside before they meet it. Do you see the derelicts gathered around the trashcan fire they've built in the alley? Some of them deaden their fear and pain with cheap wine and crack; others are too beaten down or crazy to care. Ah here comes a patrol car. Its headlights illuminate the women for a moment, and she flinches as though she were a deer in a hunter's sights. The faces off the police officers inside are set and grim. They've spent too long at a job they cannot successfully carry out, becoming cynical and almost as violent as those they once sought to control. The patrol car turns to move down the alley, and the men scatter away from their fire. Perhaps they have been involved in a crime; perhaps not. It doesn't matter. They would surely be blamed for something if they were caught.Walk with me down to the club down the street. You can hear the pounding music even from here. The children who wait to get inside instinctively feel the darkness around them and embrace it in the dress and attitudes. They do not run from the fear but seek to incorporate it, wearing their spidery black clothing and trying to out-cool one another. They seek to understand while pretending not to care. They listen and they watch, and some few of them Awaken.People are afraid, cowed by governments, corporations and more honest criminals. They fear the unknown and the uncanny. What they already know is bad enough; they refuse to face what might be even worse. That is the dream of the sheep, this barren, lifeless, soulless world which they claim they have made so that people would be safe and free. This is what the sleepers see.